IPOD moots for committee to follow up summit resolutions

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Interparty Organization for Dialogue-IPOD has proposed to set up a committee to follow up on resolutions passed by the summit.

The proposal is contained in a draft Memorandum of Understanding-MoU being drafted by the IPOD Secretariat and member political parties of the dialogue platform. Five parties, the National Resistance Movement party-NRM, Forum for Democratic Change-FDC, Democratic Party-DP, Justice Forum Party-JEEMA, Uganda People’s Congress-UPC, and the latest entrant, the People’s Progressive Party-PPP have indicated willingness to join the new MoU and are part of this draft process.

IPOD’s past MoU which came into operation in 2017 expired in 2020, but due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the organization was unable to draft and adopt another MoU to guide future deliberations. However, IPOD continued to operate with the NRM party, which was the head of IPOD at the time the MoU lapsed.

After last year’s general elections, IPOD embarked on a process to have another MoU.

The Executive Secretary of IPOD Frank Rusa, says that failure to implement the resolutions is frustrating the IPOD members.

The resolutions that were taken during the 2019 summit included that 15 percent of the funds be shared equally to facilitate routine political parties’ activities while the remaining 70 percent be shared based on numerical strength. The summit further agreed that during election year, all funds (the 70 percent) be shared equally. However, apart from increasing funds, none of the other resolutions have been implemented.

The other major resolution was the Public Order Management Act, POMA 2013. The contested issue was whether the law requires organizers of meetings to seek permission or inform the police.

It was decided in the IPOD summit that regulations for the implementation of the Act be drafted.  The Council of Secretary-Generals made the draft and submitted it to the office of the Prime Minister and the regulations were submitted to the security council for perusal.

Rusa says that the members proposed that instead of passing resolutions and shelving them, a committee is formed to follow up on the resolutions. He adds that if there is no implementation of the resolutions, IPOD shall be seen as a waste of time.

The members are also proposing a conflict resolution committee that will be mandated to reconcile members.

Rusa says the committee shall provide a clear procedure for conflict resolution which could involve getting an independent person for a mediator and a third-party arbitrator.

Muhammad Kateregga, the Secretary-General of JEEMA, says the committee shall include Members of Parliament and Members of the executive.

Regarding the conflict resolution committee, Kateregga is equally hopeful that it shall promote unity within IPOD.

Gerald Siranda, the Secretary-General of the DP says the implementation committee is a good tool for accountability. Siranda says that IPOD is the only surviving platform where political parties can express their discontent and seek amicable solutions.

Last month, Rusa said that IPOD was about to collapse due to the failure of the government to implement resolutions of the IPOD summit.

*****

URN